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The God Hunt

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

The days that I remind myself that I am collaborating with God in his design for my life and ministry are the days when everything goes smoothly—often breathtakingly so. The days when I just cry “Help! Help!” are not so easy—I kind of bump and stumble and waste time and get delayed.

Yesterday was an example of a collaborate effort between myself, the all too human Karen, and the Divine, a great and transcendent and all-powerful yet intimate Heavenly Father.

Moved with compassion over the huge financial burden of my nephew and his wife after two premature births, both babies with allergies, and one with a twisted bowel (altogether some 18 weeks in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit), I have taken it upon myself to raise the amount to pay off the remaining medical bills that are sitting on this young couple’s credit cards.

Trying to be sensitive (sometimes, as we all are learning, helping actually hurts), I interviewed my nephew and his wife, consulted with my sister and brother-in-law, talked with a few close friends, wrote a draft letter, had it edited, ran that past everyone for suggestions or corrections, then sent it off to the designer via my son who manages our print projects through his company, Pathmaker Marketing.

Yesterday, when I came into the office, two boxes of No. 10 business size envelopes—100 in all— were sitting on my desk. It was my plan to print a tag line on them and hopefully, a photo of the for-sale sign on their house (due to the huge payouts for the extraordinary hospital bills, their out-of-pocket premiums that are now the equivalent of another mortgage payment).

I had decided that we could save funds and run off the envelopes and the designed letter on the color copier in our office, but I had never needed to learn how to run this kind of project through our copying machine. Searching through my computer programs, I found the one that teaches users how to run off multiple envelopes as well as the short lecture that teaches how to do your own design.

We decided that a tag line on the envelope should read: “Update on Baby Merrick: Kailey and Brendan Bell.”

Just as I was struggling with this, one of the faithful volunteers who helps out several hours a week (and without whom I could not be productive) came into the office. She is a retired home-economics teacher and used to office equipment.

“Oh, I know how to do that!”

Of course. I had prayed the prayer of collaboration. Our editor, who is part-time knew exactly how to manage the program when she ran into glitches and was available just when we needed him before he was called away because of an emergency in his family. I didn’t want to include a photo of the baby on the outside of the envelope and ship it through public mail, so I settled on what I felt was an even stronger image of the For Sale sign in front of the house.

Before my editor left, all three of us figured how to run multiple copies through the copier and how to make sure they were printed in color. My volunteer assistant and I stuffed the envelopes with a reply envelope on which I hand wrote in red ink—“Baby Merrick Account”—and as she left the office, she took the envelopes home, packed them in a sturdy box and had them in the mail by 4:46 p.m. My sister could begin addressing envelopes while we waited for the letter to return from the designer.

What a collaboration!—done and out the door. Why is it I don’t remember to always get myself into this attitude and understanding that God is as interested in collaborating in my life as I need Him to do so? Not only that, I think He takes as much joy in working with me as I take in those days that go like smoothly oiled mechanics in some kind of master clockwork machine.

Perhaps this attitude of collaboration with my Heavenly Father is just not as yet a habit and the more I work at it, the more it will work in me to become a practice. At any rate, I strongly recommend that those who are not collaborating with God on creating their lives with him should try out this delightful practice.

“So he shepherded them with a faithful and true heart, and guided them with the skillfulness of his hands.” Psalm 78:72

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Our Internet service had been disconnected for about two weeks, and I was too busy to take the time to sit down with my new laptop and figure out how to get it started. David has a new iPad that he’s enjoying learning to use, and a wonderful friend gave me a new laptop. Both of these have touch screens, and I, in particular have been struggling to learn Windows 8. So I kept putting off my all-important phone call for help.

In addition, getting back on the Internet, so I can be productive at the office and at home, is not an easy undertaking. If I am required to unplug the modem filter, or the phone line, I have to squeeze in the corner between file drawers and a book case, scoot the book case out from the wall a few inches so that I can reach my arm while I am scrunched into the corner bending my knees to be low enough to feel blindly for the outlet and the plug. Sometimes I am a little desperate pushing up from this cramped spot—will my knees be strong enough?

Just as I had suspected, this contortionist’s position was required some four times when I finally made the call while the phone technician read the monitoring system on her end of our consultation. A couple times, when the phone line was disconnected in my study, I had to run back and forward between rooms. Several times, she had to phone me when we lost connection. In addition, I was still working through my unfamiliarity with the Windows 8 system on my new laptop. The whole process took a couple hours, and I became friendly with the very patient technician. (Fortunately, I could understand her since she was an American.)

We were waiting patiently for a signal on the laptop screen to indicate that the modem had performed certain functions. “How did you get into this?” I wondered. “Were you a techy-type.”

“Oh no,” she answered. “Far from it, but they train you extensively to work with the computers.” They hadn’t trained her to work with people who had the Internet Connectivity screens that popped up with my Windows 8 system, however. She confidentially confessed that one day she realized people on the phone were working on their end with screens that neither she nor her colleagues knew how to navigate. Resourceful, they just learned along with the users!

We waited so often that I could have fixed my hair and put on makeup for a 7:00 evening meeting that was on my schedule. “Do you think this will finish in time?” I wondered, explaining that I needed to leave in 20 minutes.

“Let’s hope so.”

Sure enough, with five minutes to put on lipstick and run a brush through my hair, I was finally back on the Internet again. We tested a few pages, and I thanked her profusely.

As you can imagine, all this time, the contortionist act, the running between rooms, the squeezing into the corner space, the insecurity of not knowing what I was really doing with my Windows 8 function, my apologies, and then the nervousness about missing a meeting that I had actually called were worth the effort and anxiety. As we all know, we have become Internet dependent.

This is all a fairly apt metaphor for struggling to keep in touch with God through prayer and the intentional direction of our minds around His promises toward us. We hit a bad patch in our life, the connectivity with our own selves, with others, and with the divine goes awry. We can’t get through, hear what we need to hear, figure out where should be, and the temptation always exists that this communication thing with God just doesn’t work; we should just give up.

Don’t give up. Crawl into that awkward corner again and again. Stretch to reach behind the heavy storage unit. Unplug what needs to be unplugged. Plug in what needs to be plugged in. Answer the other extension phone when it rings. Run between rooms to hear the next instruction. Do what you are told. Wait and wait and wait for life’s seeming interminable corrections.

God, your Technical Advisor is working on your behalf. He is making things better for you, sometimes by correcting your character as He goes. But whatever you do, don’t give up. You can be late for that meeting—meetings come and go. But, being connected with Him, truly connected, is one of the best things that can happen in your life.

One day, all the lights on the modem will be green and you will hear a voice saying, “There, I think everything is all up and running again. Happy to be at your service.”

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

While bundling three little grand kids into their car seats in the back of their parent’s car, I bent down to talk a little with Nehemiah, age three. I love his fat cheeks and his happy personality (at least around us—grandparents don’t have to deal too much with temper tantrums). “I love you,” I said after he was buckled in.

His answer: “I don’t love you.”

Now I have raised three boys of my own, and David and I have five grandsons. I know that there are phases in boys’ lives when they don’t want a grandmother nuzzling their cheeks and whispering lovey-dovey words into their ears. Consequently, when Nehemiah replied to me, “I don’t love you,” I didn’t take it personally. He’s only three years old, after all. He may mean it at the moment, but he doesn’t mean it permanently.

He’ll love me again when I pull out the new book I’ve ordered for him titled Spots. On the first page, there’s one spot. The instructions say to push the spot twice. On the next page there are two spots (and so forth all through the book.) So I’m not at all bent out of shape with his slightly rebellious three-year-old declaration of non-love.

I wonder if this isn’t more like God than unlike God. We tend to think when we have given ourselves to some act of rebellion that He is shocked with our behavior. I suspect it’s more like that of an ancient Grandfather with one of his young and immature off-springs. He knows we’ll get it sorted out eventually, that we’ll begin to remember all the good gifts He’s given to us, and that this little tantrum, this nasty shout of disbelief or rebellion can be chalked up to immaturity. After all, we’re only 18—or 28—or 38—or 48 … you get the idea. He knows we’ll get over it.

We’ll get over it pretty soon, in fact, because He also knows He’s brought us that delightful book. (Have you been reading it?).

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Due to my travel schedule and the fact that Carla Boelkens, the Director of the Global Bag Project, volunteers one day a week in the GBP office, neither one of us has had time to appropriately market the beautiful reusable shopping bags the Kenyan women make to earn a living for themselves and their children. Consequently, we have had few home parties in the last months, and home parties are our major venue for selling their products.

I’m clearing my schedule for the days ahead so that I can rectify this, but for the time being, the $225 rent for the storage room we use as a Global Bag Project office is overdue.

I had a meeting in Danville, Illinois this past Saturday. Danville is about three hours from West Chicago, where we live, so I looked forward to the drive downstate as a time I could spend concentrating on prayer, and I had several wonderful uninterrupted hours interceding for the people I love and thanking God for all the amazing gifts He pours into our lives. On the drive down, I decided that I would use the money from my book table sales to pay for the rent, which I thought was about $250.

The women’s meeting was a delight. I’m pretty sure that if I attended Second Church of Christ in Danville, Illinois, all the gals who planned this event would become close friends—believe me, that is a wonderful feeling to have about all the strangers one meets on the road if you are part of the speaker’s circuit.

When I opened the envelope that held my honorarium, I discovered that I had been paid almost $200 more than the fee I was offered—this was an unexpected and welcome generosity (since my personal checking account was down to $34.41). What a lovely God who cares for us in such immediate and practical ways!

Not only that, I discovered that I had sold $249 worth of books, only one dollar short of paying for the GBP rental fee. How does He do this? I wondered. With all His children all around the world, how does God give us what we need when we need it almost to the exact amount? Obviously, I could make up the dollar difference.

I had money enough to pay for the groceries I bought on the way home for the crowd that was coming for Sunday dinner (I’d taken $100 in small bills from my checking account to make change for the book table).

Coming in the front door, I called out to David, “I’m home!”

He replied, “Oh, I have a surprise for you.” It was a small—but nice—royalty check for a book I’d written. (All in all, an exceedingly profitable day.)

This morning, sitting at the desk, I realized (and had forgotten) that my Social Security check is electronically transmitted on Wednesday. Now I have money to pay for help with spring cleaning the yard (two teenagers of close friends are my yardmen), buy topsoil and compost for the garden boxes and the new cold frames, and plant the cool weather crops that hopefully some nearby nursery has started for me.

I’m a wealthy woman! And—the monthly GBP rent is $225, not $250—so I won’t even be out one dollar to make up the difference. Actually, I sometimes feel a little sad for people of great wealth. How can they possibly know the delight of living day to day and seeing God meet their needs, pay their bills in unexpected ways, or feel the rush of joy that comes from knowing that a Heavenly Father loves you so much? Do they even understand that He is able to provide for you down to the last penny?

“On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Our five-year-old granddaughter, Eliana, came rushing out the door of her house when she saw our car drive up her driveway. “Come! Come!” she shouted, running in her stocking feet across the muddy lawn to the backyard of the next door neighbor. She paused when she sensed we weren’t following close on her heals. “Come! Come and see!” And then, just to make sure we felt the urgency she was feeling, she called, “It’s important!”

When we reached the neighbor’s back yard, we could see what all the fuss was about. Their yard was broadcasted with thousands of blue scilla flowers, little tiny stars sprinkled, as if by magic, throughout all the grass. These were the first flowers of an all too cold, too long-delayed Midwestern spring.

Eliana paused to see if we were appropriately in awe, standing in her muddy stockings and without a coat and jacket. She swept her hand, while grandly gesturing to include the whole wondrous display. “See,” she said. “It’s beautiful!”

Many of the ancients who wrote what is known to us moderns as wisdom literature made exactly the same point. Some think that the most important thing we can do to grow ourselves spiritually is to pause—stop our frantic pace—to open our eyes and to see.

“It’s important!” said the five-year-old child, too impressed to put on a jacket or shove her stocking-feet into shoes. Indeed, it is.

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Flying home from San Francisco, I was assigned a middle seat in the last row and struck up an intriguing conversation with the woman seated in the window seat beside me. It so happens she was an ob-gynecologist who specialized in high-risk pregnancies. We began talking about the baby in my extended family who had just been released from spending 12 weeks in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit. The baby had been born prematurely with food allergies in addition to a twisted bowel condition that required surgeries.

My concern, of course, was for the baby to begin to thrive—putting on weight at this stage is a necessary factor for life—and we began to talk about the incredible advances in medical technology that allow for an infant who would normally have died to survive.

“Indeed,” she continued. “We are actually creating some of our own health cost scenarios.” She went on to explain that this amazing technology can actually allow operations on a child still in the uterus, such as what takes place when ultra scans reveal an embryo with a deformed heart. “However, in my field—high-risk pregnancies—I just dread having a pregnant mother come to me who has had one of these pre-natal operations, because it creates all kinds of complications in her own pregnancy.”

My sister laughs ruefully that she has million-dollar grand babies. This is actually not quite true—million-dollar-and-a-half grand babies—would be more like it. Baby Rhys needed Neonatal Care for five weeks before his brother, Merrick, was born this year and needed 12 weeks in NICU. Insurance has covered most of the whopping expense, but increased the premiums, and the insurance industry has also decreased the amount of payments it is covering for clients seeking psychological counseling, which is my nephew’s (the father of these adorable little boys) profession. This amounts to almost a 50% cut in salary for this family!

Not being able to pay two mortgages (one on the house and one to the insurance) company, a FOR SALE sign has now gone up on the property where my sister and I lived as girls. This is a hard but appropriate decision to make, but one that many have faced in our years of economic collapse.

However, knowing something about the fatigue of living through a possible death and life scenario and imagining now having to pack up and relocate, I was moved to ask friends and family to help pay down the remaining medical expenses on the credit cards

I have personal experience with overwhelming debt—because of a collusion of accusations years ago, our ministry ended up with a debt of $2,600,000 dollars. It has taken us fifteen years to clear this off and we have been the recipients of amazing miracles and loving gifts that have taken our breath away. Without unexpected and loving assistance from others, David and I could never have shoveled our way out from under the weight of that black and oppressive debt mountain.

So why am I taking the time to mount a campaign among friends and friends of friends, with family members, some close and some not so close? Why have I taken the time to meet with my nephew and his wife and to hear their story and to figure out what we could reasonably do to help financially? Why have I found a young web designer who is willing to give his time gratis to design a website? Why am I volunteering that our part time office staff will look over donations and set up a separate account to manage funds and design the direct-mail package? Why am I happy to oversee this campaign for the next few months?

That’s easy to answer, isn’t it? I have been where my nephew and his wife are—at least I’ve been close enough to where they are to imagine how crushing the pressures they are facing must feel. Simply, this is called empathy. The truth is: None of us can empathize very well without having walked down troublesome paths.

I know this debt can’t be paid down without the help of that One who delights in cancelling debts. So, I am already eagerly anticipating what His surprising and amazing plans will be. I know this God who loves life will not disappoint. Paraphrasing King David from Psalm 4:3:

“Know that the Lord does wonders for the faithful; when we call upon the Lord, he will hear us.”

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

I was chastising myself that I hadn’t finished the last draft of the Dominican Republic script we had filmed in February and not sent off to the videographer. This is the first film shoot I have ever directed and since it was a budget film, David and I were the scriptwriters, and David the on-camera host. I was not only the director, but made the notes and script changes that a DA (director’s assistant would normally make).

Since returning in February, I’ve been making all those rounds of physical checkups that I had literally neglected for six years. I signed myself up with a new medical group, researched the Medicare allotments for physicals (read TIME magazine’s expose on hospital costs, “The Bitter Pill”) and acted as a good consumer by asking: “How much will this cost and how much will Medicare pay?” before I showed up for my examinations and tests. I still have one or two more tests to make appointments for—my thyroid needs examining and somewhere I lost the blood test order—but considering that I have avoided all this for quite a few years, I am beginning to feel virtuous about the physical side of taking responsibility for my health.

We researched nearby dentists who used our dental insurance (my dentist is retiring), and I actually drove past their offices to choose one with the most aesthetic-looking environment. I wanted an office in West Chicago, filled with lots of Hispanics and a dentist who was interested in getting to know his patients some.

I fit in one book research week to California in March and caught up on all the office lists that had been neglected because of Christmas, and two Dominican trips, one in January and the last one for a documentary film shoot.

We had Easter for fifteen people and my daughter and I shared the duties, then David and I turned around and made our way to Maine for a few days together before we headed into all what appears to be an over-active spring schedule.

The uncompleted script kept nagging at me somewhere in a far back quadrant of my mind. However, the day we stayed home, Monday after Easter, flying out on Tuesday instead, an e-mail passed my desk, and I realized that my videographer was out of town and would not be returning until a week after we came home from Maine. I pulled the file of notes, and shoot lists, and script revisions and left it on my desk.

Somehow, my good God knew that David and I needed the quiet of a few days in a beautiful environment. We read and watched television and explored the little towns of Rockland, Rockport and Camden Maine.

Even coming home with a cold, even with days where I lazed in bed and slept off the effects of an infection, I still had two days to work on the script; one day for initial edits, and the next day for fine-combing corrections, editions, deletions and coordinating the schedule list with the final script.

What a gift! I think God is in these intimate scheduling details of our lives. He intervenes and helps us when we don’t know how to help ourselves. The relief I felt at not having to work, or to be productive on vacation was wonderful. Then to know that I had plenty of time to do a good job when I returned even deepened my feeling of release from anxiety.

“I will give thanks to you, for you answered me, and have become my salvation.”

—Psalm 118:21

I breathe a prayer like this Psalm over all the days of my life. From day to day He is my salvation.

I spy God!

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

I returned from Maine with a cold coming on. Oh, drat! I thought. It seems that the last few months since Christmas have been spent treating and recovering from one minor physical distress after another. But a cold is a cold, so I doctored myself with Airborne®, the “Effervescent Health Formula” (according to the label) “Created By A Second Grade Teacher” who was tired of catching her students’ communicable diseases. And, I sent David to Walgreens to pick up bottles of Dayquil® and Nyquil®.

On Saturday and Sunday nights, I slept a good six hours deeply without waking once. On Monday, I dragged myself into the office, but came home early. On Tuesday, I decided to bow to the inevitable and stayed home, napping in the morning, then reading on the couch in the living room where David made a fire for me in the fireplace.

I finished reading 1969: The Year Everything Changed by Rob Kirkpatrick. I labored through our book club book (deadline: this coming Sunday) titled, My Name Is Red by Orhan Pomuk, a modern Turkish author writing a murder mystery set in the 16th Century Ottoman Empire and dealing with the narrow world of the court miniaturist artists. (It was a good book to read on a sick day because it required one’s full attention.) I finished off the small pile of magazines that I hadn’t had time to read, waded through Richard D. Wolff’s Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism and finished the final chapters of Christopher Hitchen’s Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays, which I have been reading off and on throughout the year since he died.

I did make my dentist’s appointment Tuesday afternoon. Feeling badly that my cold was four days fresh, I apologized to the hygienist, “I thought about cancelling my appointment.” “Oh, no,” she said. “We have all these little kids through here.” Indeed, I could see several wiping their noses even as we spoke.

“In fact,” said the dentist, coming in and shaking my hand, which I instructed him to wash, thinking of all the tissues I had been using (one was even now tucked under my thigh as I was stretched prone on the examining chair). “I think we protect ourselves from bacteria and viruses too much. The first year I was in practice, I caught everything. After that year, I have just been healthy. Getting sick is often the way the body strengthens the immune system.”

So he examined and cleaned my teeth. We commented on the new technology. He scanned my mouth and tongue and gums with a blue light ray to determine that I had no cancer. He came up with a treatment plan for the dental work I needed in the days ahead and somehow the two of us started exchanging humorous comments and started laughing so much that the gals at the desk gathered in the hall to see what was going on in the examining room.

So this is what is good about colds:

You have an excuse to come home early from work.

You can take a morning nap.

You sleep well at night due to the decongestant and antihistamine syrup you swigged at 9 o’clock in the evening.

You can read through all those piles of books that you have neglected.

You can cancel on evening meetings.

You can go to see the dentist anyway and he won’t catch your germs because he’s developed dental antibodies.

You discover that your new dentist has a sense of humor.

Your husband will bring you a bowl of popcorn in the afternoon when you have gone to bed.

You can enjoy one of the last fires of the season in the fireplace.

You have time to thank God for the good life you have lived and the many graces that are experienced in each day, day after day, day after day, even when you have a cold.

I spy God!

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

I’ve been trying to get all my medical exams and tests done in the first few months of this year, and it is an enormous interruption to fit it all in because of my already-full schedule. But since I’ve not had a breast exam or a Pap smear or a bone density test (not to mention blood work, etc.) for the last six or seven years, and since Medicare pays for that yearly examination, I really didn’t have any excuse not to proceed, especially since my doctors are all retiring. Consequently, I’ve also had to put together a new medical-personnel system.

My sister recommended a general physician. She gave me an exam, then recommended which tests I needed to make appointments for at the nearby hospital. Our office manager pulled the names of dentists who are open to new patients and also accept our Delta Dental insurance. I actually drove past their offices to see which I liked the best before I made a phone call. (At my age, dentists are a big deal—I have one molar missing and one that has broken in half.) And I signed up with a kinesiologist to begin examining the places where I was nutritionally or chemically imbalanced.

When the hospital outpatient office called again to inform me that they needed to retake one of the imaging photographs and that I needed to make an appointment for another mammogram, I was too busy to get upset about it. We have no history of breast cancer in our family, and frankly, I have other physical ailments that are of bigger concern to me (like my lack of sleep). Lots of friends have also been called back for repeat exams, with no negative results.

However, sitting in the waiting room of the “Breast Treatment Center” with six other women all wearing those ugly hospital gowns, then having to wait a little longer than I expected (“You know this could take up to two hours,” said the nurse at the counter. No, I hadn’t known that) made me realize that I was a little anxious.

The eventual conclusion was that the original photo had shown what they were calling a little tissue shadow—nothing at all to be worried about—and that I didn’t need to wait for a second opinion on the x-ray.

It was then that I felt how good it is to have good news. Often, many of us go through life with shoulders unknowingly clenched waiting for the bad news that doesn’t come (given a whole lifetime of living) more than it does come. Our papers and the Internet are filled with horrific stories of murders and human aberrations, fires and famines and floods—no wonder we all too often expect the worst.

Years ago, Oprah Winfrey made popular the random-acts-of-kindness movement. “Your toll has been paid by the gentleman in the car in front of you…” and other sorts of small considerations. It was actually a lovely idea.

However, what about another movement that encourages random good-news bearers? “Here’s some good news,” we could say to one another. “You do not have to replace your water heater.” “You have unexpected money coming to you from an unexpected source.” “You are healthier than you think you are.”

Would these kind of comments eventually help us unclench our clenched shoulders? Would we be able to see, with enough good news, that much of the universe is a benign and loving place created so we could enjoy and be at wonder about its glory?

How remarkable that the word “Gospel” means “the good news.” God looked into the long future of mankind’s historic passage and knew that this reality of good news would be imperative for our survival, for our fruitfulness, for our constant encouragement. Scriptures say that the apostles “went about preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God.”

So let us speak this word of power; let us look into our own personal lives and detect what, exactly, is the good news of each day. And let us tell it to others. Then let us look into the divine plan in the world and discover the good news that is in God’s mind. And let us tell it to others. “On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)

I suspect—in fact, I can promise—that this practice will make a huge different in our outlook and how we feel about our lives. Let us learn to live in the good news, and let us randomly get into the habit of sharing it with others.

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Last week, partly because of so much travel, and partly because of the arthritis that I suspect is beginning to make its home in my body, I just didn’t have the energy to tackle the work that is complaining to me about not getting done.

Moreover, I had volunteered to be in charge of the church potluck. We are just forming missional communities, and each one is delegated to take care of various potluck dates, but because we are all new to this system, I was a little dubious about what kind of help I would have.

Because our church meets in a school gymnasium, most everything we need has to be hauled from our storage trailer or from our homes, then we need to clean up and haul everything back. My list included: pack up coffee pot, creamers, sugar, white mugs and basket for discards; pull three bins down from the attic, which store 100 rattan serving plates, paper plates, plastic silver already rolled in napkins, tablecloths; clean off outside lanterns and stand; refill salt and pepper shakers, spoon brown sugar in a crock and chopped nuts in a bowl; load up roasting pans with 50 aluminum-foil covered sweet potatoes. Needless to say, our car was full.

A Potato Bar had sounded good for a March Sunday that was still very much in the throes of winter weather, so I posted a menu via e-mail and then tried not to worry if we would have enough food.

As potluck dinners go, at least those that are informally planned, we had more than enough of some items (LOTS of potatoes) and not enough of other items (hardly any green salad, no iced tea and no French bread). What was wonderful was that there was plenty to feed the 70-or-so people who took plates.

No one went away hungry even though the meal was a little unbalanced nutritionally and the little immigrant girls went and grabbed the small pots of early jonquils (which I thought I would use in my Easter centerpiece). They were all so delighted and so adorable, however, I couldn’t begrudge the yellow blossoms marching out the door.

What was even more wonderful was the help I had setting up and striking the serving tables and cleaning the gymnasium kitchen. As much as I love planning large eating events that give people opportunities to gather and chat and connect with each other, there is no denying it’s a lot of work.

To have the school oven scrubbed because the sweet-potato butter and drippings puddled on its bottom, to have silverware washed that we usually haul home dirty, to have bins carried out the gym door to the storage trailer and some loaded into my car, to hear the words, “Anything else we can do?” made the church potluck an absolute joy for me. One of my criteria for a healthy small group is, “Do we work well together?”

I’ve been thinking much lately about the power of the aggregate, of how we really don’t accomplish much in the world for good (although we are always tempted to think that we do) without the helping hands of others, without their encouragement, without their labor, without their good will, and often without their sacrifice. The incredible little section at the end of the book of Mark was written to an aggregate, to a plural you:

“And these signs will accompany those who believe; by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:17-18)

I know it is prosaic to use church potlucks as an example of the potential of this powerful passage, but frankly, this morning, without the aching back I usually have after a big church-feeding event, after a week in which I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time napping, I’m experiencing a most-practical illustration of the power of the corporate you.

“You will feed large crowds without experiencing unusual fatigue…”

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.